Narrow Fabric Weaving

CHAPTER 1

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

THE AVERAGE MARRIED COUPLE if they were to make a note of all the articles classed as smallwares used in their home would be astonished at the number of items on the list they compiled. Hatbands, braces, sock suspenders, shoe-laces, name labels on garments and loops for hanging them up are just a few of the smallwares the man of the house would include. If he were also a service man he would probably add medal ribbons, badges, gold braid, cartridge webbing and chevron stripes.

The list compiled by his wife would be even longer and would include, among personal items, ribbons adorning her hat and narrow silk fabrics for its lining, lingerie ribbon or braid for shoulder straps of underwear, corset laces, shoe-laces, the waistband of her skirt with pockets for stiffeners, zip-fastener tapes and bindings on blouses. In the house she would note also the bindings on the upholstery, the rufflette tape on the curtains, and the fringes on pelmets and lamp shades.

These lists, however, would seem endless if they were extended to include all the items in common use outside the home. Just a few of them are: tapes for the rims of bicycle and motor car wheels, insulation tape on electrical goods, tapes used for driving spindles in spinning mills, and so on. Past history indeed reveals that smallwares have played an intimate part in the lives of people and in industry since the craft of weaving was first mastered.

No one knows for certain in which country woven fabrics were first made, but threads and fragments of fabrics have been found among the homes of the lake-dwellers and this indicates that even in the Neolithic period, man knew how to spin and weave.

Some historians seem to think that the first high quality fabrics came from China, that strange land, which had a highly developed civilisation, thousands of years before there was any development in the west.

There is evidence that there was a movement from the Tigris-Euphrates basin eastwards towards China in very early times, and that these people brought the Sumerian culture with them. There was a similar influx into China from the south and south east, but the opinion is also held that the Chinese culture of those far-off days was indigenous.

Fig. 1. Preparation of flax in Egypt. Flax taken from the steep, being beaten with scutchers (above) and being worked into threads, ropes, and fabrics (below). Drawing in a tomb in Beni Hassan. After Wilkinson

Fig. 2. Spinning in ancient Egypt. Mural painting from the grave of Tehutihetep. About 2000 B.C. After H. Ling Roth

It is now generally accepted that the Nile valley was the first area in which linen yarn of fine quality was produced (see Figs. 1 and 2).

The valley of the Indus is regarded as the original home of the cotton plant, and China as the country where the silkworm was first cultivated. Tradition has it that the wife of the Chinese emperor Huong Ti, was responsible for the first development of silk manufacture in the third millenium B.C.

Fig. 3. Fringed end of a Bronze Age wool fabric from Trindhoj (Denmark). Second half of the second millenium B.C. Photo : Museum. Kopenhagen

The remnant of cotton fabric found at Mohenjo Daro in the Sindh valley is also placed by the experts at about the third millenium B.C.

Professor Vogt, of Zurich, is well known for his researches into pre-historic fabrics and he mentions a wool fabric, Fig. 3, found at Trindhöj, in Denmark, which belongs to the latter half of the second millenium B.C.

There is also a wool fabric in the Hermitage museum at Leningrad left by the early Greek colonists in the Crimea during the fourth and third centuries B.C. Somewhat later, the Greeks, with their skill in the production of fine silks and linens, found no difficulty in producing narrow fabrics, and later still, these articles entered into the commerce of the Roman Empire, as can be seen from a bas-relief, now in the Uffizi museum at Florence, which shows a Roman shopkeeper displaying to his customers, a set of beautifully woven and patterned belts with fringes.

Fig. 4. Fabric preserved by iron oxide. Gudo, Canton Ticino (Switzerland). 5th century B.C. Photo: Swiss National Museum, Zurich

In our own country, some information may be gleaned from such sources as illustrated manuscripts showing the costumes of men and women during the early Anglo-Saxon period, when woven, braided and twisted girdles were in common use as an article of dress. Monuments and memorials in stone in some of the ancient churches also confirm that the girdle was used for many centuries to tie up the full tunics worn by the men and the long gowns worn by the women.

Fig. 5. Belt made by the "darning" method. Note the shuttle lying on the fabric. (From Dutch New Guinea Lake Sentani)

Coming to the Tudor period, we find that the portrait paintings of the famous 16th century artists depict the elaborate costumes of the period, where tapes, laces, points and inkles were used in profusion.

Right up to this time, the production of smallwares was in every sense, a hand craft.

Before proceeding further, it will be convenient at this point, to consider briefly, the sequence of steps in the development of the loom up to the introduction of the first power loom.

These steps are generally accepted to be as follows:—

1. The darning method.

2. The vertical (or upright) loom.

3. The horizontal (or flat) loom.

4. Addition of ancillary motions.

The Darning Method

A rectangular frame was made so that the warp threads could be tied to the cross bars.

The shuttle, which was sharply pointed at each end, was threaded under and over alternate warp threads, just as in darning socks, and it is fairly certain that this would be the first method of producing a woven girdle (see Fig. 5).

The Vertical (or upright) Loom

One would expect the next step to be a quicker method of inserting the weft, since the darning method was slow and often difficult to perform with fine yarns.

The vertical loom provided such a method, namely, by the introduction of a heald stick. This was simply a stick containing a cord formed into loops along its length, one loop being at the front and the next at the back of the stick (see Figs. 6 and 7).

The warp threads were passed through the loops. If the heald stick was turned clockwise, this would move odd numbered threads to the right and even numbered threads to the left. A pick of weft could now be inserted. Turning the heald stick anti-clockwise would reverse the movement of the warp threads, and the second weft thread could be inserted.

Fig. 6. The shed stick and heald stick used for forming the shed

In this way, a plain fabric could be produced at a much quicker rate than by the darning method. The shed stick assisted in keeping the threads of the warp in position, and a beating up sword was used for pushing the weft forward to the fell of the cloth.

There is a bas relief in Nefer-Ronpet, Thebes, 1200 B.C., which clearly shows a weaver using a shed stick and heald rod, and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, there is a beautiful Greek vase of the 6th century B.C., showing Greek women weaving on a vertical loom with the heald rod.

The Horizontal (or Flat) Loom

The development of the horizontal loom probably took place very gradually, being spread over hundreds of years. It is thought that the box-like framework would be the first change, as this would give a more stable loom, and also enable the warp beam and the fabric roller to be in the same horizontal plane, making them more accessible for the weaver.

Fig. 7. Weaving apparatus for gebang fabrics. Island of Rote. Warp and weft consist of knotted strips of gebang bast. Reading from top to bottom: Warp-beam, shed stick, heald, sword, breast-beam (consisting of two parts between which the warp is inserted). Right: weft stick with forked end. Museum of Ethnology, Basle

The system of shedding was also much improved by the introduction of the heddle, in place of the shed stick and heald stick (see Fig. 8).

The heddle was operated in a similar manner to the heald stick, being depressed for the first pick and lifted for the second pick. After the insertion of each pick, the heddle was moved to the fell of the cloth in order to beat up the weft, so that it served a dual purpose, namely shedding and beating-up, thus dispensing with the need for a beating-up sword.

Fig. 8. The Heddle

As time went on, the heddle was replaced with two heald shafts and a separate reed. One difficulty with the heddle was that of keeping it square with the warp threads during beating-up, and if it was not kept square, the weft threads would be diagonal to the warp. By using a reed mounted on two arms, pivoted above or below, on the loom frame, it ensured that the weft was always at right angles to the warp.

Another limitation of the heddle was that it was restricted to a plain weave. With the introduction of several heald shafts, separately operated, it became possible to produce simple twill and other weaves.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of the horizontal over the vertical loom was that it allowed the fitting of two foot-operated treadles for controlling the shedding. A reversing roller was fitted above the heald shafts, so that the action was positive, i.e., if treadle No. 1 was depressed, treadle No. 2 would be raised. Weaving thus became a rythmic operation, allowing the weaver to carry out the various actions with smoothness and efficiency.

Fig. 9. Weaver working at his loom in an Arab village near Aden. The device by which the shed is formed is suspended from the roller supported by a bamboopole on two rough posts. It is worked by means of treadles

In some cases, especially in the more backward countries, a primitive loom might be used, with treadle-operated healds but no batten. Fig. 9 shows an Arab weaver, making narrow fabric on such a loom.

G. Schaefer mentions a drawing in a manuscript in Trinity College, Cambridge, in which a horizontal loom is shown, with the weaver using treadles and shedding harness. Although the date is the 13th century, the loom was of rather an advanced type, and this kind of loom may have been in use for a considerable period before this date.

Fig. 10. Family of Flemish weavers at work. From the Book of Trades, Ypres. 14th century

Fig. 10 shows a 14th century loom, of very robust construction. The connections to the heald shafts above the loom indicate that four shafts are being used, but it is not clear whether they are hand or foot operated. It rather suggests the former method.

There is the shuttle in the man’s left hand, indicating that the weft has been inserted, and evidently it is intended to show that in wide looms, two people were necessary for weft insertion.

In the excellent drawing, Fig. 11, by Ludwig Vogel, all the moving parts of the loom are shown; the batten can be seen slung from the top cross rail. The weaver’s feet are on the treadles, and the heald shaft connections are quite distinct.

The only thing not shown is the warp beam, but this would be the usual type with dead-weighting for tensioning.

Fig. 11. Home weaving in the canton of Uri (Switzerland). Drawing from first half of 19th century by Ludwig Vogel (1788 to 1879). Swiss National Museum, Zurich

The Addition of Ancillary Motions

It has been difficult to give even approximate dates for the introduction of the flat loom, or the heddle. It is safe to assume of course, that if a batten was used in the 14th century, the heddle must have been used before that date. Schaefer makes reference to a Nuremburg painting dated 1387, which shows an old man weaving at a loom. Heald shafts are used and treadles, and in this case a batten would probably be used (although not shown).

In the same way, it is clear that ancillary motions, such as warp let-off and fabric take-up motions were added to the loom during the 17th and 18th centuries.

A simple pawl and ratchet wheel, operated from the movement of the batten (with suitable reduction gear) would not be difficult to apply, and this coupled with the dead-weight tension device for the warp, would result in a far more uniform pick-spacing than the old method of weaving a few inches of fabric, and then moving the fabric forward (as is still done on many hand looms to-day).

In the 1640’s in Leyden, Holland, the narrow loom was adapted to make it suitable for operation by children, and it was boasted that it served as a nursery for the training of the young for the more difficult kinds of weaving.

Much could be written regarding the making and marketing of smallwares during this period. In Holland for example, the home of tape and ribbon weaving, it was a highly organised industry centred in Leyden, Amsterdam, Delft and Haarlem. In England, there was a similar tendency for a smallware industry to be established and by the end of the 16th century, centres were growing in London and Manchester.

During the next two hundred years (1620-1820) the London ribbon weavers were frequently in difficulties, due to the smuggling of French silks into England at low prices. These silks were elegant and popular, and one writer in 1830 complained: Is it not notorious that during the whole period of their introduction, French silk and ribands were to be seen in every society that laid claim to fashion?

Prohibitions did not appear to have much effect and even the famous Spitalfields’ Act of 1773 empowering magistrates and aldermen to fix wages in Quarter sessions, merely kept up wages and discouraged improvements.

Consequently several branches of smallwares were attracted to the provinces outside the London restrictions where labour was cheaper and more pliable.

Manchester rose to prominence as a smallware centre a considerable time before the great spinning and weaving inventions and eventually became the most important small-ware producing centre, leaving London far behind.

Up to about 1650 the narrow looms could produce only one tape at a time, and little could be done to reduce costs until the tools of production were improved.

The Dutch Loom

This improvement was forthcoming in the form of the Dutch loom which enabled a weaver to weave several tapes